TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The fifth-ranked Seminole football team continued to work towards Saturday’s ACC showdown with 11th-ranked Georgia Tech Tuesday despite the uncertainty surrounding all of college football’s weekend slate. Florida State practiced 20 periods seeing the final two scheduled periods canceled due to heavy rain. The dark skies seemed to reflect the mood of everyone in light of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.

“We had a meeting with athletics director Dave Hart this afternoon and the team had a chance to discuss today’s events,” said head coach Bobby Bowden. “We didn’t really consider canceling practice today. We can’t do it until we know what they are going to do about the game. I told our team that it would be better to go ahead and practice because if we play Saturday we can’t afford to miss a day.”

Bowden, who studies American history avidly, had just turned 12 when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese and couldn’t help but reflect on that when he gathered with the media after Tuesday’s practice.

“You hate to have terrorist shutdown your whole nation,” said Bowden. “It makes me think of Pearl Harbor where we lost thousands of people and declared war. I remember being across the street with three friends and one of them walked up to us and said that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. The magnitude of this attack seems worse. The hardest thing is with this attack is that we don’t know who the enemy is.”

The ACC has suspended athletic competition through Thursday and will meet Wednesday to discuss further postponements. Information concerning Florida State’s game with Georgia Tech and all other athletic events scheduled for this weekend will be posted on Seminoles.com as soon as it is made available.

On the field Tuesday, former Ohio State head coach John Cooper was a guest at practice again as he continues to provide in-depth insight into the Seminole football team for ESPN as they approach this Saturday’s game against the Yellow Jackets. Cooper’s visit to FSU marks the first time in 45 years that he has watched another team practice during the season.

“This has been a really good experience for me seeing how someone else operates,” said Cooper. “I have always had great respect for coach Bowden and his staff. They do a great job. Seeing them first-hand has been a great experience. I am getting a pretty good feel for what the Seminoles will be doing this weekend.”

NOTES: Sophomore Michael Boulware rolled his ankle in Tuesday’s practice according to Director of Sports Medicine Randy Oravetz. The injury is not serious and Oravetz said the staff would keep an eye on it the rest of the week…Wednesday’s regularly scheduled ACC football teleconference has been canceled by the conference. It is expected to resume on schedule beginning Wednesday, September 19.